The Familial Cancer Program of the Vermont Cancer Center: Development of a Cancer Genetics Program in a Rural Area

In response to many scientific discoveries linking cancer in certain families to inherited factors, the Vermont Cancer Center established the Familial Cancer Program (FCP) in December 1993. This multifaceted program combines the expertise of clinicians and researchers in many disciplines, including genetics, oncology, psychology, and molecular biology. The program's goals are identification of families in its region with excess cancer, provision of clinical services to such families, and use of research protocols when available and appropriate. This article describes the experience of setting up a familial cancer program in a rural area and discusses both successes and challenges in such an endeavor.     

Coherence masking protection in speech sounds: The role of formant synchrony

Three experiments were performed to examine listeners’ thresholds for identifying stimuli whose spectra were modeled after the vowels /i/ and /ε/, with the differences between these stimuli restricted to the frequency of the first formant. The stimuli were presented in a low-pass masking noise that spectrally overlapped the first formant but not the higher formants. Identification thresholds were lower when the higher formants were present than when they were not, even though the first formant contained the only distinctive information for stimulus identification. This indicates that listeners were more sensitive in identifying the first formant energy through its contribution to the vowel than as an independent percept; this effect is given the namecoherence masking protection. The first experiment showed this effect for synthetic vowels in which the distinctive first formant was supported by a series of harmonics that progressed through the higher formants. In the second two experiments, the harmonics in the first formant region were removed, and the first formant was simulated by a narrow band of noise. This was done so that harmonic relations did not provide a basis for grouping the lower formant with the higher formants; coherence masking protection was still observed. However, when the temporal alignment of the onsets and offsets of the higher and lower formants was disrupted, the effect was eliminated, although the stimuli were still perceived as vowels. These results are interpreted as indicating that general principles of auditory grouping that can exploit regularities in temporal patterns cause acoustic energy belonging to a coherent speech sound to stand out in the auditory scene.     

Decision participation in public and private organizations

In recent years, there has been a convergence of democratic theory and management theory regarding the importance of participation in strategic decision making. In both the public and private sectors, the goal of increasing participation has been sought as a means to: (1) enhance the wisdom and effectiveness of decision-makers in crafting policy, and (2) secure the support of key actors in an organizations environment. Reform efforts, such as reinventing government and re-engineering the corporation, often have a goal of increasing participation by changing the structure of the organization. Despite the apparent enthusiasm for participation, it is not as easy to achieve as it might seem. Studies of the strategic decision-making process suggest that structural adaptations are not a particularly effective route to increase participation. In this study I examine participation in the strategic decisions of public and private organizations. A survey of 368 senior managers in public and private organizations is used to examine a model that relates participation to the decision type, the structure of the organization and the environment in which the decision is made. In doing so, I also examine the influence of internal (employees) and external (elected officials) participation in the decision processes of public and private organizations. The degree to which a decision falls under public and legal scrutiny, and the amount of “red tape” found in the organization prove to be critical factors influencing the amount of participation.     

Book reviews

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

STM Experimenter: Using HyperCard and MacRecorder in short-term memory experiments

We describe a Macintosh program for the presentation of spoken word lists in short-term memory (STM) experiments. The program was developed with the use of HyperCard and MacRecorder. Parameters such as rate of item presentation, number of items per trial, and number of trials per block may be adjusted by the experimenter. The program features high-quality digitized sound, trial-to-trial word list randomization, and data logging. Computer-based experimentation offers several advantages over traditional approaches that involve tape recordings or lists read aloud by the experimenter. Methodological improvements afforded by computer-controlled item administration are discussed.     

Single-word reading in college dyslexics

Recent studies of single-word processing in dyslexic populations have focused on the differential predictions made by ‘delay’ and ‘deviance’ models. Many experiments in this area have sought to determine whether the reading process in dyslexia is idiosyncratic or similar to processing in younger non-dyslexic readers. Most relevant research has, however, failed to take account of recent developments in theoretical models of reading. Furthermore, relatively little research has examined the reading behaviour of ‘highly compensated’ subjects, who achieve high-level academic qualifications despite their developmental dyslexia. The present paper examines such a population, and concludes that its single-word reading is governed by the same spelling-to-sound word characteristics as reading by other groups. The implications of the results for the deviance/delay hypothesis and for models of word naming are discussed.     

Motfis of passage into worlds imaginary and fantastic

In this paper I match phenomena associated with the passage into otherworlds as reported during out-of-body and near-death experiences, with imagery associated with the passage into otherworlds as depicted in classic modern fantasies and fairy tales. Both sources include sensations of consciousness separating from the body, floating and flying, passage through fluidic spaces or dark tunnels toward bright lights, and emergence into supernatural worlds inhabited by souls of the deceased and by higher spiritual beings; and both describe comparable psychophysical intiatory factors. I introduce a metaphysically neutral depth psychology to explain these parallels, examine two metaphysically opposed extensions to this depth psychology, and consider several implications of a transcendental perspective.Mr. Greene is a free-lance writer whose principal interests have been parapsychology, religion, and metaphysics     

NATURE, HISTORY, AND GOD: TOWARD AN INTEGRATED CONCEPTUALIZATION

Abstract. In this paper I attempt to bring the ancient symbol God into a meaningful and illuminating conceptual relationship with modern understandings of the development of the cosmos, the evolution of life, and the movements of human history. The term "God" is taken to designate that reality (whatever it may be) which grounds and undergirds all that exists, including us humans; that reality which provides us humans with such fulfillment or salvation as we may find; that reality toward which we must turn, therefore, if we would flourish. I suggest that the cosmos can quite properly be interpreted today in terms of two fundamental ideas: (1) a notion of "cosmic serendipitous creativity," (2) the expression of which is through "directional movements" or "trajectories" of various sorts that work themselves out in longer and shorter stretches of time. In a universe understood in these terms, the symbol "God" may be taken to designate the underlying creativity working in and through all things, and in particular working in and through the evolutionary-historical trajectory on which human existence has appeared and by which it is sustained. The symbol "God" can thus perform once again its important function of helping to focus human consciousness, devotion, and work in a way appropriate to the actual world and the enormous problems with which men and women today must come to terms; but the ancient dualistic pattern of religious piety and thinking in which God is regarded as a supernatural Creator and governor of the world—so hard to integrate with modern conceptions of nature and history—is thoroughly overcome.